CentOS - Dec 2019 - several VMs have suddenly quit working, in VBox.

Hi all!

I have several VMs, all in virtualbox 6.0.14 and all the VBOX add-ons are
up to date.

I don't use them daily, last used any of them probably 4-6 weeks ago,
pretty sure it was already running 6.0.14 by that time. they were all
fine when last used.

Two of them are C7, one is a clone of the other, and the other is C8.
each seems to have different symptoms. 

the C7 clone claims there is no initramfs, no matter which kernel I
try to boot. See first attachment.



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On Sun, Dec 01, 2019 at 07:18:31PM -0500, Fred Smith
wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> I have several VMs, all in virtualbox 6.0.14 and all the VBOX add-ons are
> up to date.
> 
> I don't use them daily, last used any of them probably 4-6 weeks ago,
> pretty sure it was already running 6.0.14 by that time. they were all
> fine when last used.
> 
> Two of them are C7, one is a clone of the other, and the other is C8.
> each seems to have different symptoms. 
> 
> the C7 clone claims there is no initramfs, no matter which kernel I
> try to boot. See first attachment.
and of course I hit the wrong key so it sent the mail before I was
done typing. :(

And I apologize, the VBox window in which the system is booting
doesn't let me select text for cut and paste, so the best I can do
is to either do a screendump and attach it, or to retype what I
see (as I've done below).

I can probably boot a rescue CD and rebuild initramfs, but the greater
question in my mind is why in the world would THREE VMs all go wonky
at (AFAICT) the same time?


The one that C7-clone was cloned from (C7) dies with:

	Starting Switch Root...
	[!!!!!!] Failed to load  SELinux policy, freezing

and does the same thing no matter which kernel I boot.

the C8 system goes on for along way and eventually dies with this 
on the screen:

	failed to mount RPC Pipe File System.
	see 'systemctl status var-lib-nfs-rpc=pipefs.mount' for details.

then a bunch of OK entries then:
	[FAILED] Failed to start crash recovery kernel arming.
	see 'systemctl status kdump.service' for details
	[FAILED] Failed to start crash recovery kernel arming.
	see 'systemctl status kdump.service' for details
	you are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to
view
	system logs...

Looking at journalctl -xb output there is a TON of stuff that means
little-to-nothing to me, but near the end I see this:

	<date, hostname> [1734]: Error /boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64
not found.
	<date, hostname>: Starting kdump [FAILED]
	...
	...
	--Subject: Unit kdump.service has failed

then some more lines of apparently explanatory material, but no errors,
except for the last line that says:

	<date, hostname> systemd[1]: Received SIGRTMIN+21 from PID 369
(plymouthd).


Scrolling back thru the output I see had come up earlier:
	mount: /boot: unknown filesystem type 'ext4'
	boot.mount: Mount process exited, code=exited status=32
	Failed to mount /boot.

I installed C8 with default filesystems, so I'd sorta thunk they
would be XFS, so is it legitimate for it to find /boot as ext4?
and even so, why would ext4 not be a legitimate FS type?

So, I'm horribly confused here, I'd appreciate suggestions
on these matters.

thanks in advance!


Fred
 

-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us
-----------------------------
                         God made him who had no sin
                      to be sin for us, so that in him
                 we might become the righteousness of God."
--------------------------- Corinthians 5:21 ---------------------------------